Michael Maguire’s Broncos brought the Bulldogs hype train to a shuddering halt on Thursday night.
And according to a pair of rugby league legends, Brisbane exposed Cameron Ciraldo’s side’s Achilles heel and used it to their advantage in a dominant 42-18 win.
It was the Dogs’ first loss of the season after their pack of smaller forwards helped record the league’s best defensive record – conceding 46 points less than any other team – up until that point.
So how did Maguire mastermind the victory?
It all came down to isolating defenders with one-on-one tackles, gaining an advantage from a bigger middle forward dominating his smaller opponent.
“The Broncos really impressed me, some of the things Madge did with their attack really impressed me in the fact they were up against a Bulldogs side who are a smaller pack,” Matty Johns said on Matty and Cronk on Monday night.
“The way they defend, they are a fast-moving, swarming defence. They operate like hyenas in a sense. If you’re a smaller pack you have to control the ruck to beat a bigger side like Brisbane.
“The thing I found impressive from Madge was using his big guys off playmakers, Adam Reynolds went across quite a bit and dropped Willison off, blokes like Haas.
“It got them one-on-one tackles and allowed them to punch through… being able to manufacture those one-on-ones.”
For legendary halfback Cooper Cronk, the one-two punch of isolating defenders before attacking a defensive line on the back foot proved crucial.
“Michael Maguire did a lot of work during the week from Monday to Friday to win this game, Dogs have been up for a long period of time,” Cronk said.
“That fast moving defence, what he did was find the pocket that was stepped back, get big bodies to go through it. Quick play the ball and then attack on the next one.
“It was a shot, shot mentality from the Brisbane Broncos. When Michael Maguire’s teams play well, they are physically and aggressively ready to go from the start, and they were.”
Five-eighth Ben Hunt also delivered an impressive performance, only a week after he was spearheaded into hooker against the Warriors.
He made more errors (four) than he did run metres (two) and cut a frustrated figure as he desperately attempted to spark a faltering Brisbane attack.
Shrugging off that performance, Hunt returned to his best with one moment proving how committed he is to the Broncos’ cause.
“The guy that symbolised it for me was Ben Hunt, he’d have gone off the week before and thought ‘I didn’t know I could play that bad’,” Johns explained.
“He was really frustrated with himself, and there’s no doubt during the week Madge would have given him a little tickler.
“There was a little moment in the game… there was a loose ball and Ben Hunt came out of nowhere and came up with it.
“It wasn’t a 50/50 ball, it was a 70/20 ball. He had a 30 per cent chance of coming up with it and he found a way to get it.”
As for the Bulldogs, Cronk believes the NRL’s bigger packs will cause them their biggest headaches in 2025.
“I like what the Dogs are doing, they’ve got their identity and they will win a lot of games this year,” Cronk said.
“But the key thing for the Dogs is when a big pack of forwards like the Broncos, can they stop that big pack.
“That will be the storyline of the Dogs for the whole year.”
Ciraldo also has a host of young guns in his side, with Jacob Kiraz, Bronson Xerri, Stephen Crichton, Toby Sexton, Jacob Preston, Harry Hayes and Bailey Hayward all under 25.
Johns believes if the Bulldogs are to mount a charge for a premiership, Ciraldo needs to manage their mindsets with “hype” continuing to build.
“For the Dogs, there’s some young players in that side. It’s managing the hype and the excitement,” he said.
“With every win the excitement is just rising and the expectation rises with that and suddenly people have gone away from saying ‘can the Dogs make the finals again?”
“To ‘can the Dogs make the top four? to now ‘can the Dogs win the comp?’. That’s a lot for young players to take on.”